Auburn Football: Quarterback Picture Muddled After Beating Florida

The Auburn Tigers emerged with a big SEC win on Saturday, defeating the Florida Gators 17-6 to improve to 5-2 (3-1 SEC).

The Tigers took advantage of a Florida team that suffered from several miscues on special teams while playing two true freshman at quarterback.

Auburn leaves this game with a win, but moving forward it appears that they have a big question mark at the quarterback position.

Junior Barrett Trotter, who started this season with some solid performances before struggling over recent weeks, was benched at halftime. Head coach Gene Chizik elected to insert sophomore Clint Moseley after Trotter was just 2-for-8 for 33 yards and a touchdown.

Moseley was more accurate in the second half, going 4-for-7 for 90 yards in the first extended playing time of his career. However, it would be inaccurate to say he was much better than Trotter in moving the offense down the field. Both of Auburn’s scoring drives in the second half came on short fields as a result of fumbled punt returns by Florida.

True freshman Kiehl Frazier also saw plenty of action again, but mostly as a runner out of the wildcat formation. Frazier showed his running ability with 35 yards on seven carries, but he is still very unproven as a passer. He completed his one throwing attempt for no gain on Saturday.

Saturday’s game showed that the Auburn coaching staff felt the time was right to pull Trotter as the starter, but who will be taking snaps next week against LSU is a mystery.

Trotter has the most experience and was playing well before his top receivers were injured. Moseley showed some ability against Florida, but has he improved that much since training camp when he lost out to Trotter? Neither player is much of a running threat. Frazier has the most upside, but Florida head coach Will Muschamp might be able to tell you that starting a true freshman quarterback in the SEC is not a good idea.

Auburn fans can celebrate tonight after beating Florida, but they have to be worried about the Tigers’ uncertainty at quarterback with one of the nation’s best defenses on the slate next weekend. This situation will be very interesting to monitor not only this week, but through the rest of the season.